Chapter 6: The Wandering Marines
Year 1516 - Paradise (First Half of Grand Line), Three Weeks After Sabaody
The pirate captain's head hit the deck with a satisfying thud.
"That's the last of them, sir," Yuki Nanami reported, wiping blood from her katana. Around them, the deck of the pirate ship Red Vengeance was littered with unconscious or restrained crew members. "Thirty-seven pirates captured, no casualties on either side."
Danzo Aiko surveyed the scene with satisfaction. The Red Vengeance had been terrorizing merchant vessels in this sector for three months, with a combined crew bounty of over 120 million berries. Their captain, "Crimson" Jack Razor, had a personal bounty of 68 million and a reputation for torturing captives.
Now he lay frozen from the waist down, ice crystals spreading across his legs, completely immobilized.
"Good work, everyone," Aiko said, turning to his crew. "Lieutenant Chen, signal the nearest Marine base. Anonymous tip about the location of the Red Vengeance crew. Include coordinates and a list of their crimes."
"Aye, sir." Akira was already working the Den Den Mushi, his voice disguised through a voice modulator they'd acquired specifically for these situations. "This is the fourth pirate crew this month we're handing over anonymously."
"And the fourth time we're doing the Marines' job without any credit," Marcus grumbled, though his tone was more amused than bitter.
Isra appeared from below decks, carrying a ledger. "Found their records. Twenty-three merchant ships raided, four villages pillaged, estimated 147 civilian casualties. There's also a list of buyers for their stolen goods—including two Marine supply officers taking kickbacks."
Aiko's expression hardened. "Copy those names. We'll add them to our list."
Over the past three weeks, the crew of the Hakusetsu had fallen into a rhythm. They tracked pirates, stopped crimes, and protected civilians—everything Marines were supposed to do. But they did it as ghosts, never staying in one place long enough to be caught, never taking credit that might reveal their location.
They'd become the Wandering Marines, as some rumors had started calling them. Marines without a base, operating outside official channels but still serving justice.
It was exhausting, dangerous, and exactly what they'd signed up for.
"Sir?" Tomás approached nervously. "We've got a problem. Just intercepted a Marine transmission—there's a bounty out. On us."
The crew went still.
"Show me," Aiko ordered.
Tomás pulled out wanted posters that had been faxed through their intercepted channels. Aiko's face stared back at him from the paper:
WANTED - DEAD OR ALIVEDANZO AIKO - "THE SNOW TRAITOR"FORMER COMMODOREBOUNTY: 300,000,000 BERRIESCRIMES: TREASON, ASSAULT ON MARINE PERSONNEL, HARBORING FUGITIVES, DESERTION
Below his poster were smaller ones for each crew member—Isra at 85 million, Koji at 60 million, and descending amounts for the others. Even young Maya had a 25 million berry bounty.
"Three hundred million," Koji whistled. "That's higher than most rookie pirates get after years in the Grand Line."
"They're sending a message," Isra observed. "That betraying the Marines is worse than being a pirate."
Aiko studied his poster silently. The epithet stung—"Snow Traitor" instead of "White Death." But what bothered him more was the "Dead or Alive" designation. The Marines wanted him badly enough that killing him was acceptable.
"There's more," Tomás said quietly. "Vice Admiral Onigumo has been assigned to hunt us personally. He's already in Paradise with three battleships and two hundred Marines. And there are rumors that if he fails..."
"They'll send an Admiral," Aiko finished. "I expected as much. How close is Onigumo?"
"Unknown. But he's been tracking pirate crew disappearances and merchant ship reports. He's smart enough to realize someone's still doing Marine work in this sector."
Aria materialized from mist beside them, her form more solid than it had been three weeks ago—proper food and rest had helped stabilize her Devil Fruit manifestation. "We could always stop being predictable. Let some pirates go, stop protecting civilians so obviously—"
"No," Aiko interrupted firmly. "The moment we compromise our principles to stay hidden is the moment we become exactly what they claim we are—criminals. We keep doing the work. We just get better at not being caught."
"Easier said than done when there's a Vice Admiral hunting us," Marcus pointed out.
"Then we'll have to be smarter than a Vice Admiral." Aiko turned to Akira. "Chen, I want you to start tracking Onigumo's movements. Every report, every sighting, every base he visits. We need to know where he is at all times."
"That's a lot of signal interception, sir. And if he realizes we're monitoring him..."
"He'll know we're nearby, which might actually work in our favor. He'll become more cautious, more predictable." Aiko looked at his crew. "We're not running. We're continuing our mission. But we're doing it intelligently, with full awareness that we're being hunted."
"Sir," Maya spoke up hesitantly. "What if... what if they offer us amnesty? If we surrender, maybe—"
"They won't," Aria said flatly. "I was there, remember? The Marines don't forgive traitors, justified or not. Best case scenario if you surrender is life imprisonment. Worst case is a quiet execution and a fabricated story about how you died 'resisting arrest.'"
The young ensign paled.
"Aria's right," Aiko confirmed, though his tone was gentler. "We crossed a line at Sabaody. There's no going back, only forward. But that doesn't mean we're alone." He gestured to the captured pirate crew. "Every pirate we stop, every civilian we save—that's proof that we're still Marines, even if headquarters doesn't recognize us anymore."
"Marines without a home," Doc Reiner observed. "That's a hard road, Commodore."
"I know. But it's our road now." Aiko looked at each of his crew members. "If anyone wants out, wants to turn themselves in and take their chances with official justice, I won't stop you. No judgment, no consequences from me. This is everyone's choice to make."
Silence. Then Isra snorted. "You're not getting rid of us that easily. We're in this together."
Nods of agreement rippled through the crew.
"Alright then." Aiko allowed himself a small smile. "Let's finish up here and move on. Chen, what's our next destination?"
Six Days Later - Small Island of Toroa, Paradise
The Hakusetsu docked at a small, relatively unknown island that served as a trading post between larger islands. Toroa wasn't wealthy enough to attract major pirate attention or important enough for a permanent Marine base—which made it perfect for resupplying without drawing notice.
"Four hours," Aiko announced as they docked. "Resupply, rotate shore leave in shifts, and back on board. We don't stay anywhere long enough to establish patterns."
The crew dispersed in organized chaos. Isra led a supply team into the main town. Doc took Maya and Tomás to restock medical supplies. Aiko remained on board with Koji, Aria, and Marcus, monitoring communications for any sign of Onigumo's forces.
"You know," Aria said, sitting cross-legged on the deck in a rare moment of stillness, "three weeks ago I thought my life was over. That I'd spend the rest of my days hiding in mist, killing Marines until someone finally killed me."
"And now?" Aiko asked, not looking up from the reports he was reviewing.
"Now I'm part of a crew of rogue Marines doing the same job I signed up for originally, just without the institutional backing or legal protection." She laughed—a sound that was becoming less hollow each day. "It's insane. But it feels... right. More right than anything has in years."
"That's the cognitive dissonance of trying to serve justice in an unjust system," Aiko observed. "Welcome to the club."
Koji's voice interrupted from his perch in the crow's nest. "Contact. Three ships approaching from the northeast. Configuration matches Marine battleships. Distance: five kilometers and closing."
Aiko was on his feet instantly. "Are you certain?"
"Positive. And sir... the lead ship is flying Vice Admiral colors."
Onigumo.
"How did he find us?" Marcus demanded.
"Doesn't matter. We need to leave. Now." Aiko's mind raced. The shore leave team was still in town—they had maybe twenty minutes before the Marine ships would be in firing range. "Signal the supply team. Emergency recall, code red. Everyone back to the ship in ten minutes."
"What if they can't make it in ten?" Aria asked.
"Then we buy them time." Aiko turned to Marcus. "Get the ship ready for immediate departure. Koji, keep tracking those ships. I need to know the moment they change course or speed."
His crew moved with practiced efficiency—three weeks of operating as fugitives had sharpened their response time considerably. Within minutes, the Hakusetsu was ready to sail, but Isra's team hadn't returned yet.
"Eight minutes," Koji reported. "They're definitely on an intercept course. And sir... I'm seeing someone on the lead ship's deck. Tall figure, distinctive silhouette. I think it's Onigumo himself."
Aiko's Observation Haki reached out, extending toward the approaching ships. There—a presence that burned with cold fury and absolute conviction. The Vice Admiral had found them, and he wasn't planning to let them escape easily.
"Six minutes," Koji updated. "They're definitely going to reach weapons range before our crew returns."
"Then we go to them." Aiko made a decision. "Aria, Marcus, Koji—you're with me. We intercept on land, give the supply team time to reach the ship. When everyone's aboard, we sail immediately."
"You're going to fight a Vice Admiral?" Marcus asked, though he was already moving toward the gangplank.
"I'm going to delay one. There's a difference." Aiko drew Yukikaze, and snow began to swirl around him. "Let's move."
They met Onigumo's forces at the town's main dock.
Vice Admiral Onigumo was exactly as intimidating as his reputation suggested. Tall, severe, with a mane of black hair styled in a way that resembled spider legs. His specialty was the Spider-Spider Style—a technique that allowed him to grow additional arms from his back using his hair, letting him wield eight swords simultaneously.
He stood at the head of fifty Marines, his eyes locked on Aiko with laser focus.
"Commodore Danzo Aiko," Onigumo's voice was cold and precise. "Or should I say, the Snow Traitor. You're under arrest for treason against the World Government. Surrender now, and your crew will be granted the mercy of a trial before execution."
"That's not much of an offer," Aiko observed, positioning himself between Onigumo and the path to the Hakusetsu. Behind him, he could sense Isra's team moving quickly through the back streets, almost to the ship.
"It's more than you deserve." Onigumo drew two of his eight blades. "You had potential, Commodore. You could have been great. Instead, you threw it away for sentiment and misplaced idealism."
"I threw it away for justice. There's a difference."
"Justice is what the World Government declares it to be. Everything else is chaos." The Vice Admiral's presence intensified, his own Armament Haki coating his blades. "You should have learned that at the Academy."
"I learned a lot of things at the Academy. Including when to question orders that violate basic human rights."
"Human rights." Onigumo's tone dripped with contempt. "You sound like a Revolutionary. Perhaps that's what you truly are—a traitor who infiltrated the Marines to undermine us from within."
"Believe what you want. I know what I am." Aiko's Observation Haki confirmed it—Isra's team had reached the ship. Just a few more minutes. "I'm a Marine who refuses to become a murderer for convenience."
"Then you're a fool." Onigumo's hair erupted, six additional arms sprouting from his back, each grasping a sword. "And I have no use for fools."
He attacked with the speed of someone who'd earned his Vice Admiral rank through countless battles. Eight blades came at Aiko from eight different angles simultaneously, each one coated in Armament Haki, each one perfectly positioned to exploit any opening.
It was an attack that would have killed most people instantly.
Aiko became snow.
The blades passed through crystalline particles, and Onigumo's eyes widened fractionally—he'd expected that, but seeing it was still disorienting. The Vice Admiral recovered instantly, his Observation Haki predicting where Aiko would rematerialize.
He was right—Aiko reformed to the left, Yukikaze already in motion.
Their blades met with a sound like thunder, Haki clashing against Haki. The shockwave sent nearby Marines stumbling backward, frost spreading across the dock from the point of impact.
"You're strong," Onigumo admitted, pressing the attack. Four blades struck high, two swept low, two came from the sides—a coordinated assault that treated his eight arms as independent fighters working in perfect harmony. "Stronger than I expected for someone so young. But strength alone won't save you."
"Good thing I have more than strength." Aiko's Observation Haki was working overtime, predicting each blade's path, finding the microscopic gaps in Onigumo's defense. "I have conviction."
"Conviction is worthless without power to enforce it." Onigumo's attack intensified, his blades moving so fast they seemed to multiply. "And your power is still inferior to mine!"
He was right—in terms of pure combat experience and versatility, Onigumo had the advantage. But Aiko had something the Vice Admiral didn't: a reason to fight beyond following orders.
"Yuki no Mai: Hyōryū Senpū!" Snow Dance: Ice Dragon Whirlwind!
Aiko spun, Yukikaze creating a spiral of snow and ice that forced Onigumo back. The technique wasn't meant to injure—it was meant to create space, to buy time.
Behind them, Aiko could hear the Hakusetsu's engines roaring to life. Almost there.
"You're stalling," Onigumo realized. "Your crew is escaping while you delay me. Clever. But futile."
The Vice Admiral's presence exploded outward—not Conqueror's Haki, but a different kind of pressure, the weight of authority and absolute certainty. His eight blades moved in perfect synchronization, creating a web of steel that closed in from all directions.
Aiko couldn't dodge this one. The attack was too comprehensive, too perfectly coordinated.
So he didn't dodge.
His Conqueror's Haki flared, coating Yukikaze in black lightning and swirling snow. The temperature plummeted twenty degrees in an instant, and when his single blade met Onigumo's eight, it was the Vice Admiral who was forced back.
"Impossible," Onigumo gasped, his blades trembling from the impact. "That level of Conqueror's Haki... you're not just awakened, you've mastered the coating technique!"
"I had good teachers. And a lot of motivation." Aiko pressed forward, forcing Onigumo into a defensive position for the first time. "Tell me, Vice Admiral—when you follow orders to hunt escaped slaves, when you execute people without trial, when you protect a system that treats human beings as property—can you still sleep at night? Or do you tell yourself it's necessary for order?"
"Order is necessary," Onigumo snarled, his eight blades working frantically to parry Aiko's assault. "Without it, civilization collapses into chaos. The World Government maintains order. Therefore, protecting it is the highest duty!"
"Even when that order is built on slavery and murder?"
"YES!" The Vice Admiral's conviction was absolute. "A thousand innocents are worth sacrificing if it maintains peace for a million others! That's the calculus of leadership, the burden of command! You're too naive to understand that some evils are necessary!"
Their blades locked, Haki against Haki, two philosophies of justice meeting in direct opposition.
"You're wrong," Aiko said quietly. "Evil is never necessary. It's just easier than finding better solutions."
He pushed off, disengaging. Behind him, the Hakusetsu was pulling away from the dock, all crew aboard.
"Time's up, Vice Admiral. We'll continue this debate another time."
"You're not escaping!" Onigumo lunged forward, all eight blades aimed at Aiko's vital points.
"Yuki no Mai: Hyōga no Kabe!" Glacial Wall!
A massive barrier of ice erupted between them, thirty feet high and six feet thick. Onigumo's blades bit into it but couldn't break through immediately—it would take him precious seconds to shatter it.
Seconds Aiko used to sprint for the ship.
He leaped, transforming partially into snow to cover the distance, and landed on the Hakusetsu's deck just as it cleared the harbor.
"FULL SPEED!" he ordered.
The ship surged forward, its sails catching wind, the specially modified engine Doc had been tinkering with providing extra thrust. Behind them, Onigumo's ice wall shattered, and the Vice Admiral stood on the dock, his eight blades still drawn, his expression absolutely furious.
"THIS ISN'T OVER, TRAITOR!" his voice carried across the water. "I WILL HUNT YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH! YOU CANNOT RUN FOREVER!"
Aiko watched Toroa shrink behind them, his chest heaving from exertion. That had been close. Too close.
"Everyone accounted for?" he asked.
"All present, sir," Isra confirmed. "No casualties. Though we had to leave behind half our supplies when the emergency recall came."
"Supplies can be replaced. People can't." Aiko sheathed Yukikaze, though his hand remained on the hilt. "Chen, plot a course away from here. Somewhere Onigumo won't expect."
"Where he won't expect..." Akira thought for a moment. "Sir, there's a section of Paradise known as the Calm Belt Border—where the regular Grand Line waters meet the Calm Belt. It's dangerous because of occasional Sea King migrations, but Marine ships usually avoid it for exactly that reason."
"Perfect. Set course."
As the crew dispersed to their tasks, Isra approached Aiko quietly. "That was Vice Admiral Onigumo. One of the strongest fighters in the Marines. And you held him off alone."
"I had motivation. And he wasn't trying to kill me—just capture. If he'd gone all out..." Aiko shook his head. "We got lucky."
"Luck had nothing to do with it. You're getting stronger, Aiko. Fast." Isra's expression was serious. "But so is the opposition we're facing. Today it was a Vice Admiral. Next time..."
"Next time might be an Admiral. I know." Aiko looked out at the horizon, where storm clouds were gathering. "We'll face that when it comes. For now, we keep moving, keep working, keep proving that justice doesn't require institutional approval."
"The Wandering Marines," Aria said, appearing beside them. "I heard some merchants in town using that name. It's spreading—stories of Marines who stopped being Marines but never stopped protecting people."
"Good. Let them talk." Aiko smiled slightly. "Maybe stories are how change starts. Not with grand declarations or violent revolutions, but with people whispering 'what if things could be different?'"
"That's optimistic for someone who just barely escaped capture," Doc observed, joining the conversation with his medical bag. "Speaking of which, let me check that shoulder. I saw Onigumo's blade graze you."
Aiko hadn't even noticed the wound—a shallow cut on his left shoulder, already crusting over with frost from his Devil Fruit's unconscious protective response.
"I'm fine, Doc."
"You're letting me examine it anyway. Captain's orders—oh wait, I can give you captain's orders now since we're all technically criminals." Doc's dry humor made several crew members chuckle.
As Doc worked on the minor wound, Aiko looked at his crew—these nine people who'd chosen to follow him into uncertainty. Isra with her unshakeable loyalty. Koji with his perfect aim and terrible jokes. Marcus with his protective instincts. Yuki with her fierce determination. Maya with her idealistic anger. Doc with his gruff compassion. Akira with his meticulous planning. Tomás with his quiet courage. Aria with her slowly healing spirit.
They were criminals now, in the eyes of the law. Traitors to the organization they'd sworn to serve.
But they were also something more important: Marines who still believed in what the title was supposed to mean.
"Sir?" Maya approached hesitantly. "Do you think we can actually make a difference? Nine people against the entire World Government and Marine forces?"
Aiko considered the question seriously. "Honestly? I don't know. Maybe we'll fail. Maybe we'll get captured or killed, and everything we're trying to do will be forgotten."
Maya looked disappointed until he continued.
"But maybe we won't. Maybe the stories people tell about us will inspire others to question, to resist, to demand better from those in power. Maybe some young Marine recruit will hear about the Wandering Marines and decide to choose conscience over convenience when their moment comes." Aiko met her eyes. "We can't change the world alone, Maya. But we can light a candle in the darkness and hope others light their own."
"That's very poetic, sir," Koji called from the crow's nest. "But we've got another problem—looks like a pirate ship heading this way. Big one. I'm seeing a skull with crossed axes on the flag."
"Of course there is." Aiko sighed, then straightened. "Alright everyone, stations! Let's show these pirates what Wandering Marines can do!"
As his crew rushed to battle positions, Aiko felt something he hadn't expected: not fear or regret, but a strange sense of rightness. This was what being a Marine was supposed to be—protecting people from those who'd harm them, standing against injustice wherever it appeared.
Even if doing it made them outlaws.
Especially because doing it made them outlaws.
The Hakusetsu sailed into the gathering storm, its white sails like a banner of defiance, its crew ready for whatever came next.
They were the Wandering Marines.
And their journey had just begun.
END OF CHAPTER 6
Next Chapter: "Storm at Sea - The Red Axe Pirates"